(1847-1922) Scottish inventor, most notably credited with inventing the modern telephone. Alexander was brought up in Edinburgh Scotland. From an early age he had an inquisitive mind and became fascinated with acoustics and voice patterns. This interest in acoustics and communication was partly inspired by his mother's growing deafness.
In 1870 he went to live in Canada where he developed a method of teaching speech to the deaf and in 1873 he became a professor of vocal physiology at Boston University. In 1876 he developed a patent for the telephone, something he had developed during long evening sessions with the mechanic Thomas Watson.
The first telephone call was made on August 3rd 1876, where he successfully placed a call to another house 6km away on an improvised piece of telephone wire. This proved it was possible to communicate over long distances for the first time.
in 1879, the Bell Telephone company bought Edison's patent for carbon microphone and this enabled a big improvement to Bell's initial telephone design. The Bell telecommunications company proved very successful. By 1886, over 150,000 people in the US, owned a telephone. It went on to become one of the most successful modern inventions.
Bell died of anaemia on 2nd August 1922, in his Scottish estate of Beinn Bhreagh, Nova Scotia
He subsequently spent much time in legal action against infringement of his patent.
Later inventions of Bell included, the photophone, a device that transmitted sound on a beam of light and the gramophone, which recorded sound on a wax disc.
Towards the end of his life, he carried out research in the field of aerodynamics, looking at giant kites and hydrofoils.
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